Tigard man gets time-served for threats to shoot up an elementary school

Published 4:25 pm Friday, November 17, 2023

A Tigard man who sent multiple emails to the FBI in May 2022 threatening to “shoot up” Middleton Elementary School in Sherwood and kill students was sentenced to time-served — the seven months he already spent in jail.

Braeden Richard Riess, 27, was diagnosed with schizophrenia after his arrest last year. He was evaluated and treated at the Oregon State Hospital before he was able to aid in his own defense.

He pleaded guilty to interstate communication of a threat in August.

Assistant Federal Public Defender Susan Russell said Riess and his family had thought he was suffering from depression and anxiety. It wasn’t until after his arrest and evaluation at the state hospital did they learn it was psychotic schizophrenia, she said.

Now Riess is a full-time student at Portland Community College, interested in becoming a veterinary technician. He also attends weekly narcotics anonymous meetings and meets regularly with his supervising psychiatrists, his lawyer said.

Riess thought time travelers were invading his life and his delusions prompted him to email the FBI, his lawyer said.

“They were a misguided, delusional action that was motivated solely to get the intervention of federal law enforcement to stop the time time travelers that he perceived at that time to be real,” Russell told the judge at Riess’ sentencing Thursday.

The emails arrived at the FBI between May 5 and May 16 in 2022.

One was sent from an address that contained the words “imbeingserious” and said Riess was going to attack the school “because of the terrorist hacking that’s taken place,” according to a federal affidavit. He referenced multiple times that what he was writing “was not a joke,” the affidavit said. Riess told agents that time travelers were following him and hacking his video games.

Between May 5-13, 2022, Riess sent at least 15 online messages to the FBI, threatening he would “murder” and “kill innocent people,” would be “conducting a mass casualty event” and “a mass murder incident” and that he would “be walking into a school and murdering innocent children.”

On May 15, he sent similar threats but this time against the elementary school in Sherwood.

Local police attempted to contact Riess at his home but were unable to find him. They then contacted his parents who indicated Riess had displayed “increasingly paranoid behavior” within the prior year and they had taken possession of a gun he owned.

On the morning of May 16, 2022, police arrested Riess at his home after he made additional threats against the school that morning, according to the affidavit.

A relative of Riess’ told investigators that family members had been begging Riess to get mental health treatment and called law enforcement a month earlier to report that Riess was acting suicidal and homicidal and had a gun in the past, the affidavit said. Another relative told investigators that he had taken a gun away from Riess about three to four years before due to fear that he would harm himself, according to the affidavit.

After Riess’ arrest, police obtained an extreme risk protection order against him in Washington County to prevent him from being able to buy a gun.At the sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan R. Bender and Russell jointly recommended a sentence of time-served, which was seven months and five days. While the threats were serious, Bender said he recognized that Riess’ actions were exacerbated by his mental illness and drug use.

Riess had been in counseling at the time of the offenses, but his failure to take medication, coupled with his regular use of marijuana and isolation, contributed to his deterioration, he and his lawyer said.

Riess apologized to his parents, who attended the hearing, and to the community. “I deeply regret the situation. It shouldn’t have happened,” he said.

U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez, who previously started and ran a mental health court for four years as a Washington County judge, said he was pleased Riess was put on medication that has made a significant difference in his life.

He urged Riess to stay on the medication and alert people if he feels it’s no longer the right dose or right prescription. He also ordered Riess to remain on federal supervision for three years.

“In some ways, I feel that the episode was unfortunate,” Hernandez told Riess. “In some ways, you’re very fortunate.”